Dealing With Dubai

DEALING WITH DUBAI….Michael Ledeen says that there’s a longstanding and well accepted way of handling things like the Dubai port deal. Here’s his recommendation:

Create an American company to handle the matter (if foreigners wish to buy in, or even buy it, that’s ok);

Wall off the foreign investors/owners. They are silent partners. They have no say in the actual operation;

Create a “classified Board” composed of people with security clearances and experience in sensitive matters;

Appoint a CEO and other top executives with experience and clearances.

This is….surprisingly….reasonable. Did Ledeen really write it, or someone posing as him?

Not that it really matters, of course, since the DPW/P&O deal is now the Terri Schiavo of corporate acquisitions: plainly dead, even though there are still a few people kidding themselves into thinking the occasional twitch is a genuine sign of life. If Congress passes legislation making this official, and Bush vetoes it (unlikely), I figure a veto override vote of about 90-10 in the Senate and 400-35 in the House. Even Republicans who typically win their seats with 70% of the vote realize that this is an issue that could force them back into the cold, unforgiving hands of the private sector come November.

The real answer, I imagine, is for the deal to go through but for DPW to sell off its American operations to some other company. They’d have to sell at a fire sale price, but that’s the price of fame sometimes. Sic transit and all that.